Cyber bullying, sexting, childhood obesity, teen suicide, binge drinking and crack cocaine are some of the high-profile current issues barely touched in health class these days, because the curriculum is 15 years old.

A new health and phys-ed curriculum was created in 2010, but was shelved by then-premier Dalton McGuinty after howls of outrage from some religious groups over the document’s sex ed component. They were upset that topics such as sexual identity would be taught at Grade 3 and anal and oral sex in Grade 7 . McGuinty called for more public consultations and even promised the rest of the curriculum would be in place for the start of classes in September 2010.

Nothing has happened since, according to Chris Markham, executive director of the Ontario Physical and Health Education Association, which has recently launched a campaign to promote the new curriculum. The current curriculum is the oldest in Canada, created before the Internet took hold of our lives, before gay marriage was legal, before such raging teen issues as cyber bullying and sexting even existed.

“What kids are learning in the school environment is completely out of date,” said Markham, who said the Ontario norm is to rewrite subject curriculums every seven years. He said the environment that kids are growing up in has become highly sexualized.

“We’re not equipping our kids with the tools and skills to be able to manage in this environment,” he said. “And that’s not OK.”

In a statement to The Star, Education Minister Liz Sandals said she’s committed to moving forward on a new health and phys-ed curriculum, but said there are no timelines for when the consultations and the ultimate release of the curriculum will happen.

“I look forward to hearing feedback from stakeholders, parents and experts to ensure our students can make informed decisions about their health and well-being,” she said.

Markham said it’s important the minister get moving on this issue quickly so the curriculum can be put to use next fall. The shelved curriculum was the most consulted curriculum ever developed in the province, he said, with more than 2,000 teachers, parents, students and experts having a say.

If you don’t stay up to date with curriculum, it becomes irrelevant to students, said Sharon Seslija, the teacher consultant for health and phys-ed at the Greater Essex County District School Board.

For example, she cited the old curriculum’s requirement to teach healthy eating – which helps address such current teen issues as obesity and eating disorders – in Grade 10. The new curriculum pushes that subject back to Grade 9, which is frequently the last phys-ed and health credit many students take because only one phys-ed credit’s required to graduate.

“There’s a good example of how the secondary curriculum is out of touch with what’s going on in society,” said Seslija.

“It’s a different world than it was 15 years ago, society moves so quickly.”

Charles McVety, a Toronto-area religious leader who helped lead the fight against the curriculum in 2010, said his only problem is with the sex-ed component. He remains opposed because it teaches “graphic, explicit sex,” talking about anal sex and oral sex, to children at an inappropriate age.

“The huge inappropriateness of all this, to start little children with such graphic, explicit, complex sexual teaching, is appalling,” he said, taking particular issue with the topic of talking about the different genders, including transgender people, in Grade 3. “Would you teach your eight-year-old there are six genders and they may not be the gender of their body? This is not what parents want.”

But Ophea’s Markham said McVety’s claims of what the new curriculum sex ed component calls for is completely inaccurate.

In Grade 3, rather than teaching about “gender fluidity,” it teaches about respecting differences including gender identity, Ophea says. In Grade 7, kids aren’t taught to perform oral or anal sex, as has been suggested in the media. Rather, they’re taught about reasons to delay sex (including vaginal and anal sex) and making healthy choices to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

“The curriculum expectations do not say a word about oral or anal sex,” said Markham. They are only mentioned as “teacher prompts,” Markham said. For example, the curriculum provides advice on how to react if a student says he’s heard it’s not sexual intercourse if it’s anal sex.

Markham said he’s frustrated with the criticism coming from people like McVety because the curriculum looks to help kids have healthy relationships and promotes delaying sexual activity.

“That’s where I struggle with this (opposition),” he said. “How can you disagree with this?”

More than 50 organizations support Ophea’s campaign to get the new curriculum released, including Canadian Mental Health, the Council of Ontario Directors of Education and the Ontario Federation of Home and School Associations.

Ophea has released a study that shows other provinces already do much of the sex ed teaching that’s in the shelved Ontario curriculum. Puberty is taught in Grade 6 in the old curriculum, but has been moved to grades 4 and 5 in the new curriculum because kids are reaching puberty earlier.

In Grade 1, the new curriculum calls for kids to be taught parts of the body, including genitalia.

“Eyes, ears, nose, boys have penises, girls have vaginas, but that’s just part of your body,” said Seslija. “They do that in kindergarten in Alberta.”

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